Talking Points #2

Aria By: Richard Rodriguez

1.) "In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness. The moment after the visitors left, the change was observed."
This quote shows how the American society affected this family, by asking them to not speak their native tongue. The Spanish language is what this family used to communicate with each other and these visitors asked them to stop speaking that way. This can dramatically change a family. If they can not communicate the way they are accustomed to, they might stop talking at all. This ties into the article because eventually the family does stop communicating the way they once did.

2.) "We remained a loving family, but one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness."
This family was once bound by the fact that they only spoke Spanish. They felt a closer bond to each other because they all had each other and nothing else bothered them. But now that they have learned to speak English they don't speak to each other as much. It sounds as if they enjoyed the fact that they weren't like everyone else. They had something that set them apart, and it broke them apart once that one thing was gone.

3.) "They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."
This shows us that even though we don't think we change people by asking them to speak our native language, we are changing them in a big way. These people start to blend in with the American society and they loose their feeling of individuality. Its seems that by asking people to speak English we are asking them to loose a part of their lives.

Comments:
I really enjoyed reading this story. I liked the fact that it showed a different point of view about things. I never thought that asking someone to speak English could change their lives so drastically. I never thought that learning to speak English could prevent children of another culture from speaking to their parents. In Delpit's article, she says how children must learn things at home in order to survive in their communities. In a way this relates to Rodriguez's story because he did learn English at home, but they were asked to learn English. It is not something they decided to do on their own. They had to be told to speak English at home so they would be able to better in school. Even though they did do better in school, the relationship amongst the family was diminishing. The author says it still pains him to look back on how it affected his relationship with his parents.